Toy automobile for toy roadways

ABSTRACT

In a toy automobile for toy roadways with an electric driving motor supported by the chassis of the vehicle, the latter being supportable when in motion on lateral guiding elements of the toy roadways by turning of the front wheels, the chassis of the vehicle is divided crosswise for reducing the expenditure of components and for making the steering functions safe, forming a front chassis part and a rear chassis part, and the two parts of the chassis are rotatably and pivotably connected with one another by an articulated pin with little play, whereby the rear chassis part supports the driving motor and front chassis part supports a common axle for the front wheels, such axle swinging freely. In addition, with a plate-like extension, the front axle extends across the rear chassis part, and for pivoting the front axle when the vehicle is in motion, a section of the extension is in friction-grip contact with a driving pinion, the latter being rotatable in both directions, until the one or other position of pivoting is reached, and the friction grip between the extension and the driving pinion is cancelled when the vehicle is not in motion.

The present invention relates to a toy automobile for toy roadways,having an electric driving motor supported by the chassis of thevehicle, which, when in motion, is supportable on lateral guide elementsof the toy roadways for turning of the front wheels.

With toy automobiles, it is well known to support the front wheels onthe single-piece chassis of the toy automobile by means of separate axlejournals, and to turn the latter via lever gears in the one or the otherdirection. In many cases, the lever gears are driven via gear. Asidefrom the fact that such known toy automobiles are costly to manufacturedue to the great number of components needed, such toy vehicles aresusceptible to trouble as a result of the complicated design of thesteering mechanism.

The object of the present invention is to reduce the number ofcomponents of the type of toy vehicles described above, and to make thesteering functions thereof safer.

According to the present invention, this object is accomplished byproviding a chassis of the toy vehicle divided crosswise, forming frontand rear chassis parts; that the two parts of the chassis are pivotablyand tiltably linked by an articulated pin with little play; that therear part of the chassis supports the driving motor and the front partof the chassis supports a common axle for the front wheels, such axlebeing able to turn freely; that a plate-like extension of the axle,extends to the rear part of the chassis; and that a section of theextension, for turning the axle while the toy vehicle is in motion, isin friction-grip contact with a driving pinion, the latter beingrotatable in both directions, whereas such friction grip between theextension and the driving pinion is cancelled when the toy vehicle isnot in motion. Preferably, the axle has the extension in the centerbetween the front wheels, and axially on the side averted from theextension, it has a forwardly projecting attachment for receiving aswinging axle for the axle of the front wheels. According to anotherfeature of the invention, the axle, the extension and the attachment maybe formed of a single molded part, for example an injection molded part.In this way, a steering system formed of only a few parts is created forthe toy vehicle, which steering system automatically turns the frontwheels to one side or the other when the vehicle is in motion, suchturning of the wheels conforming to the direction of rotation of themotor, whereas the front wheels are not turned when the vehicle is notin motion. The tiltable link between the two parts of the chassisassures the required friction grip between the extension and the drivingpinion when the toy vehicle is in motion. By the influence of the thrustapplied to the rear part of the chassis by the driving motor, the frontpart of the chassis tilts downwardly in the forward direction within theregion of the joint, whereby the extension is forced or pressed againstthe driving pinion, so that when the toy vehicle is not in motion, thefront part of the chassis with its extension tilts back upwardly due tothe absence of thrust, and the active connection between the extensionand the driving pinion is cancelled. Finally, the arrangement of theattachment and the design or embodiment of the swinging axle ahead ofthe axle of the front wheels at the same time result in a torque beingpermanently applied to the axle when the toy vehicle is in motion, whichtorque acts as a resetting force in the lengthwise direction of the toyvehicle in the sense of an alignment of the axle and the front wheels.When the toy vehicle is in motion, the turning forces acting on the axleare, of course, greater than the resetting force. The result of theembodiment of the toy vehicle of the present invention thus is that bysimple pole-changing and changing the direction of rotation of thedriving motor, the axle with its front wheels is turned so as to supportthe toy vehicle on the one or other guiding element, for example whenchanging driving lanes.

In order to relieve the driving pinion for the duration of drivingmotions with the front wheels turned, it is proposed based on anotherfeature of the toy vehicle that the section of the extension that is infriction-grip contact with the driving pinion is bounded on both lateralsides by recesses or grooves, and that such recesses or grooves aredisposed beneath the driving pinion when the axle is in the one or otherfinal position of turning. This permits the driving pinion to turnfreely and without loss of force, for example for driving motions, whenthe axle is in the final position of turning, even though the front axleremains in the position of turning with the front part of the rearchassis part tilted downwardly in the forward direction.

The invention is explained in greater detail in the following byreferences to the embodiment shown in the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of the chassis of a toy vehicle;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the chassis of the toy vehicle takenalong line II--II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top view of part of the toy vehicle;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial cross-section of a toy vehicle in theresting position, taken along line IV--IV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged partial cross-section of the toy vehicle similarto that of FIG. 4 in the driving position;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged partial cross-section of the toy vehicle takenalong line VI--VI of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 is another partial cross-section of the toy vehicle taken alongline VII--VII of FIG. 3.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes the chassis of a toy vehicle,which chassis is formed by a rear chassis part 2 and a front chassispart 3. In particular FIG. 2 shows that the two chassis parts 2 and 3are rotatably connected with one another by an articulated pin 4. In theembodiment shown in the drawing, the articulated pin 4 is guided withlittle play in a recess 5 of the chassis part 2, which permits thechassis part 3 to be slightly tiltable against the chassis part 2. Thelatter supports an electrical driving motor 6, which mates with thecrown gears 8 and 9 via the reversing cage gear 7, such crown gearsbeing rigidly mounted with a spacing between each other on an axle 10for the rear wheels 11. In this way, forward driving motions of the toyvehicle can be achieved when the shaft 12 of the driving motor 6 isrotating.

Furthermore, a friction pinion 13 is rigidly mounted on the shaft 12,rotating with respect to an extension 14, the latter being rigidlyconnected with the axle 15 for the front wheels 16. Preferably, suchextension forms one piece with the axle 15, so that when the extension14 is turned, the axle 15 is swings as indicated by the arrows 17. Theaxle 15 is jointed with the chassis part 3 by means of a screw 18serving as the swivelling axis. Such screw 18 extends through a bore inan attachment 19, which projects beyond the axle 15 in the forwarddirection, which automatically applies to the axle 15 an alignmentcomponent for the straight run of the toy vehicle as the latter is inmotion.

In the resting position, that is, when the driving motor 6 is notrotating, the axle 15 can assume the position, for example the one shownin FIG. 1, whereby the front wheels 16 assume the position for straightrun. In the latter position, a downward tilting motion takes place inthe rearward direction under the influence of the weight of theextension 14, and the friction-grip connection between the extension 14and the friction pinion 13 is discontinued as shown in FIG. 4. When thedriving motor 6 is connected to a power source (not shown) and the toyvehicle starts to run, a forwardly directed tilting moment is applied tothe chassis part 3 under the influence of the thrust, which momentbrings the extension 14 in active friction grip connection within thezone of the center section 14' due to tilting (FIGS. 3 and 5). Theextension 14 is swivelled to the left or right in accordance with thedirection of rotation of the driving motor 6, jointly swinging the axle15 and the front wheels 16. On reaching a final position (FIG. 3), thefriction pinion 13 is disposed on top of a recess 20 (FIG. 7), whichcancels the friction grip between the extension 14 and the frictionpinion 13. In this position of the extension 14, the friction pinion 13is capable of continued frictionless rotation without motor losses. Anyresettings of the extension 14 under the influence of driving motionsare compensated in each case by active reconnection between theextension 14 and the friction pinion 13.

After the driving motions have ended, the chassis part 3 with itsextension 14 is automatically tilted back into the position shown inFIG. 4 due to the absence of thrust, which cancels the friction gripbetween the extension 14 and the friction pinion 13 and the axle 15,under the influence of an alignment force, can automatically swing backaround the screw 18 for straight run. Reference numeral 21 denotes guideelements for the toy vehicle, which are supportable on baffles laterallyconnected with he roadways (not shown).

I claim:
 1. A toy vehicle for toy roadways, comprising:a vehicle chassistransversely divided to form a front and a rear chassis segment; anelectric drive motor carried by the rear chassis segment; a common shaftfor a pair of front wheels, said shaft being carried by the frontchassis segment affording free pivoting motion; a pin joint linking saidfront and rear chassis segments in such a way that the two chassissegments are joined together affording both rotary and tilting motionwith modest play; and a platform-shaped projection connected to the saidcommon shaft for said front wheels, extending to the rear chassissegment and having a rear portion facing said rear chassis segmentwhich, while the toy vehicle is running, enters into frictional contactwith a bi-directionally swivelling motor pinion connected to the drivemotor so as to achieve swivelling movement of the common front wheelshaft until either of two extreme swivelling positions is reached,whereas when the toy vehicle is stationary, the frictional contactbetween the rear portion of the platform-shaped projection and the motorpinion is disengaged.
 2. The toy vehicle according to claim 1, whereinsaid common front wheel shaft includes a tongue with a pivoting verticalaxis for the front wheel shaft operating in conjunction with the frontsegment of the chassis, said tongue facing away from the platform-shapedprojection and being positioned halfway between the front wheels.
 3. Thetoy vehicle according to claim 2, wherein said platform-shapedprojection and said tongue are connected with the common front wheelshaft as a single molded unit.
 4. The toy vehicle according to claim 1,wherein said rear portion of the platform-shaped projection infrictional contact with the motor pinion includes notched setbacks ontwo opposite sides so that in the extreme swivel end positions of theshaft these notched setbacks are spaced below said motor pinion.